I've been told by NVIDIA directly that there will "not be a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti SUPER" graphics card, but that hasn't stopped the team from TecLab from making a Frankenstein-style RTX 2080 Ti SUPER themselves.

The team ripped apart two separate GALAX GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics cards, taking their faster 16Gbps GDDR6 modules and using 11 x 16Gbps modules onto an RTX 2080 Ti. The stock GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has 11GB of GDDR6 at 14Gbps, but the RTX 2080 SUPER ships with faster 16Gbps modules.

NVIDIA, if it were to launch a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti SUPER, would make it much beefier than just increasing GDDR6 bandwidth. We should expect more CUDA cores as well as maybe a wider memory bus, with faster GDDR6 as well.

Apex Legends has had a level cap of 100 which some players reached pretty damn quick, especially given how addictive the game is -- but now developer Respawn Entertainment has stepped in and has increased the level cap up to 500.

Respawn is also making some changes to the frequency of getting rewards in the game, where getting up to level 100 will see you go from earning 45 Apex Packs up to a much higher 59 Apex Packs. The journey to level 500 in Apex Legends will see you scoring yourself a huge 199 Apex Packs, while new gun charms will drop every 100 levels.

There have been some changes to the XP system too, with Respawn explaining: "Under the old system, there was a large increase in XP required at level 26. Under the new system, we've reduced the rate at which XP required to level up increases from levels 20 to 58. The net impact of this change is that the XP curve should be softer for new players, meaning they will get more rewards, faster through level 58. The maximum XP required per level will remain at 18,000 starting at level 58 (26 in the old system) and will remain constant through level 500".

If you didn't already know, the script for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was leaked but we didn't know who -- we knew it would've been one of the principal actors, but now we know exactly who it was: John Boyega.

In a recent interview with Boyega and Good Morning America, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker star said he had the script under his bed, had his boys around partying it up, and left it there. He was in the middle of moving, and cleaners came through and discovered it -- throwing it on eBay for just $84 on eBay, obviously not knowing how valuable an unreleased Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker script would be.

Boyega said: "I was like, I will leave it under my bed and when I wake up the next morning, I will take it and then move. But then my boys came over and we started partying a little bit. And the script, it just stayed there. And a few weeks after, this cleaner comes in, finds this script and puts it on eBay for like 65 pounds (equivalent to $84). The person didn't know the true value".

A new patent filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment teases that the next-gen PlayStation 5 console might also have some next-gen capture and sharing technology, something Sony refers to as "scene tagging". The last rumor we had on the PlayStation 5 is that it will cost $499 and ship with an ultra-high-speed 2TB SSD.

The new patent was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office just a few days ago on November 21, 2019 -- which will see Sony taking user generated content and sharing methods to the next level on the new PlayStation 5. The patent centers around "scene tagging" which is used to "characterize user-generated content associated with gameplay information associated with video games".

We should expect Sony to make good use of its AI-powered in-game assistant that I reported about in September 2019 called PlayStation Assist. At the time a new patent was filed for an AI-powered voice assistant that would see you speak into the mic, and the game would then "dynamically respond". I can see the "scene tagging" working in that way -- where you could say "PlayStation -- capture the last 15 seconds and share on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Twitch".

There have been whispers that some big job losses were coming to Silicon Valley, and in that time I've reached out to some industry sources who have corroborated such things -- but now, it seems it's beginning.

Chris Hook and Heather Lennon, former Radeon Technologies Group marketing staffers, have left Intel. In the last couple of years they both left the crumbling team of RTG where most of them found a new home at Intel, and now Hook and Lennon have left the odyssey. I reached out to both of them and had the news confirmed independently, too.

Given that Intel are really starting to see their wheels wobble in the consumer market with huge market share losses to their consumer and now HEDT processors, AMD is really putting the pressure on them. Intel did a shady trick of having an NDA of their latest 10th-gen HEDT chips just before AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 3950/3970X launched -- and then within a couple of days this news breaks out.

Looking for cheap PC games? Steam has you covered.

Steam's new Autumn sale (it's basically a Black Friday sale) is pretty damn good, offering steep discounts on some of PC gaming's best titles. Highlights include Portal 2 for just $0.99, Prey for $7.49, RAGE 2 for $19.79, Far Cry 5 for $14.99, Destiny 2 Shadowkeep for $20.99, Dishonored 2 for $9.99 (the first one is only $2.99!), Far Cry Primal for $5.99...and so, so much more.

Valve has an amazing setup for Steam sales now, and you can easily search visually or via a big list of specials. There's no weird hidden games this time around. Titles are even separated into genres to help narrow down the deals.

Everyone pays attention at this time of year when Thanksgiving and Black Friday along with Cyber Monday offer great savings on some of your favorite new gear. Today we have some excellent deals from iBuyPower.

Black Friday is right around the corner, and to get ahead of the crazy sales day, Best Buy has slashed prices on a range of different products, with lots of quality products 40% or more off.

So, what's on sale? Best Buy has discounted products across most of the stores, but for the purpose of this post, we are going to be concentrating on the best-discounted technology-related products. Starting off, we have $100+ discounts on laptops, headphones, and TV's.

Other discounted products like the Xbox One X are $150 off, indoor/outdoor cameras $250 off, and much more. Best Buy is even discounting video games for both the Xbox One and PS4, while also discounting external hard drives and tablets. I have provided a full comprehensive list of each of the best products that are on offer below.

Red Dead Redemption 2 arrives on Steam on December 5, Rockstar Games today announced.

Rockstar's big Western magnum opus will be ready for Steam's massive 90 million-strong userbase next week, complete with high-end PC optimizations like uncapped frame rates, 4K 60FPS and 8K resolution support, HDR and UltraWide support, and lots of lighting, texture, and draw distance improvements. Right now the game is under fire for crashing and other issues on PC, but Rockstar is busily rolling out patches and updates.

Read Also: Red Dead Redemption 2 PC specs aren't demanding at all

When the PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett next-gen consoles roll out in 2020, developers will be making games across seven different platforms (eight platforms including PC). Will last-gen systems hold the beastly Zen 2, Navi-powered consoles back?

2020 doesn't mark a true new generation of gaming. Rather than flipping the reset switch and making users buy all new games and accessories, Sony and Microsoft are launching a next-gen/iterative cycle hybrid. The new PS5 and Project Scarlett systems will deliver a big power leap over current consoles like a true next-gen ladder step, but they'll also support older-gen games and accessories like an iterative cycle does.

Throughout the next few years next-gen will share games with last-gen. Newer systems will basically join their respective families as the bigger, stronger older brother. In this overlap transition period, developers will be making games across seven consoles and eight platforms total:

When you go and think about places in public that would be coated in everyone's germs, what's the first place you think of? I think of public bathroom door handles.

I'm probably not alone in doing this, but when I'm at a public bathroom, I will try to completely avoid touching the entrance and exit door handle, as I know it's covered in everybody's germs. Luckily, my problem could soon be solved as two students out of China have managed to create a self-cleaning door handle.

The door handle uses ultraviolet light to keep itself germ-free. It has aluminum handles at either end and a thin layer of titanium dioxide covering the glass. When the ultraviolet light is enabled, it triggers a chemical reaction that kills off 99.8% of the germs present. How does the UV light turn on? Easy. The two graduate students thought of that and equipped the door handle with a small generator that uses the kinetic energy of the door opening and closing to power itself. What an incredible invention!

Twitter is planning a great big ol' purge of their platform, as the company is planning on removing a bunch of inactive accounts.

Twitter will be removing accounts that haven't signed into the platform for the last six months. Warnings are already being issued out to accounts that are inactive, but don't stress yet as Twitter has said that the big ol' purge won't happen overnight. It will instead roll out over time, starting on December 11th. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the deleting of inactive accounts will happen over "many months".

This deleting spree is Twitter's effort of cleaning out useless information from their platform and giving users who are active "more accurate, credible information". While this all sounds good, Twitter is aware that this will pose some problems for account holders who have passed away. Loved ones who like to go through old Tweets of deceased friends or family will not be able to do so if the account falls under the "inactive" category and is deleted.

Tesla recently unveiled their soon-to-be-released Cybertruck, and during their reveal Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a 'shattering' presentation.

During the presentation, Elon Musk said that the Cybertruck would have shatterproof windows, and then proceeded to demonstrate their durability by having Tesla lead designer Franz von Holzhausen toss a metal ball at them. To his and the audience's surprise, both windows shattered on impact.

Musk laughed off the windows damage and said that to Tesla's credit, they didn't go through the window and that they would fix this problem in post. LEGO has now taken that moment in Musk's presentation, and created their own evolution of truck they are marketing as "guaranteed shatterproof". LEGO are clearly poking some fun at Tesla's unique design, and the funniest part about it is that the LEGO piece doesn't even look that different from Cybertruck's design.

Usually, free stuff is great, but Amazon's free stuff might come across as a little bit invasive, which is why they are shutting it down.

CNBC has reported that Amazon will be shutting down their free Product Sampling program sometime next year. If you aren't aware of the free sample program, Amazon was running a program that sent out users free samples of products that were based on users' purchase history.

While this might sound like a great idea at first, people have become more aware of personal data collection by big companies such as Facebook and Amazon. So, having free products sent out to buyers' doors based on purchase history could serve as a physical reminder to buyers that Amazon knows everything about them and their wants. This would seem like a slippery slope to walk on, so Amazon is instead going to rely on more traditional ways of marketing.

Beatsaber, the virtual reality game that pits players against a whole bunch of different musically generated blocks, has had its developer bought by Facebook.

According to a new tweet by the official Oculus Twitter account, Beat Games Studio will now be joining Facebook's Oculus Studio as an independently operated studio in Prague. Oculus further welcomes Beat Games to Facebook on their blog post that says "what the community has come to love about Beat Saber will remain intact" and that "Beat Games will continue to ship content and updates for Beat Saber across all currently supported platforms, now with even more support from Facebook."

Mike Verdu also commented on what they assumed to be the most FAQ's. Some of the answers are in regards to mods being available on Beat Saber. Verdu says that both Beat Games and Oculus know the value of mods for Beat Saber players and will continue to support them if they fall under their legal guidelines and policies. "We're going to do our best to preserve the value that mods bring to the Beat Saber player base". If the mod is found to breach any of their now updated policies, it will be removed.

Ever thought about animals wearing virtual reality headsets? I haven't, but some farmers clearly have as reports are coming out about cows wearing VR.

Farmers in Moscow strapped their cattle up with some modified VR headsets to examine whether or not they have an impact on the cow and the milk they produce. The farmers programmed the VR headsets to show a simulation of summer fields, and tuned the colors that were being shown to be appealing to the cows eyes. The farmers were testing whether the simulated summer fields had an impact on the cow when the landscape they were actually in were just a normal farm.

The findings, while they are quite basic are still findings. The cows appeared to have less anxiety and were much more relaxed. Unfortunately, it wasn't discovered if the VR headsets combined with the now higher level of relaxation caused the cows to produce more/higher quality milk. Since the study was conducted there are more experimental plans set in place to find out if VR headset wearing cows produce more milk being or if the overall quality is increased.

Colonization of other planets may have just hit a speed bump, as a new study has indicated that humans in microgravity environments have their gut severely affected.

According to a new study by biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside, humans that are induced in simulated microgravity, such as spaceflights, have been found to have disrupted the functioning of their epithelial barrier. The epithelial barrier is a bunch of cells that line our intestines and stop any bacteria, fungi, or viruses from spreading throughout our body.

Declan McCole, a professor of biomedical sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, who led the study, said "Our findings have implications for our understanding of the effects of space travel on intestinal function of astronauts in space, as well as their capability to withstand the effects of agents that compromise intestinal epithelial barrier function following their return to Earth."

Halo: Reach finally launches on the PC and Xbox One on December 3, and now Microsoft has confirmed you won't get bored of the game quickly -- as it will launch with a simply insane 6.2 million maps.

The game will launch with 6.2 million maps that includes both the normal "legacy" maps and millions of community-created Halo maps, millions of maps that were built for Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4 that will be available for Halo: Reach games to download and then play in.

Halo: Reach will work differently on the Xbox One compared to the PC, where on the Xbox One it will join The Master Chief Collection, with the new maps being found through the file finder. On the PC however, the expansive collection of maps will reside within Halo: Reach only as games included in The Master Chief Collection launch individually.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX and GeForce RTX gamers will want to jump on the latest GeForce Game Ready 441.41 drivers, which include optimizations for Halo: Reach that is about to drop on the PC, and offers optimal support for the new Quake II RTX v1.2 update.

Game Ready for Halo: Reach means that you get the latest performance optimizations, profiles and bug fixes from NVIDIA for the game -- while you get optimal support for the latest version of Quake II RTX, which provides even better quality graphics, water reflections, and ray tracing goodness.

There's also some issues fixed with Red Dead Redemption 2 when SLI is enabled and you're running Vulkan, while both Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Forza Horizon 4 get some tweak love in the new GeForce 441.41 drivers. The big note here is the strange "known issue" about V-Sync which NVIDIA outright says in the new drivers: "V-Sync does not work". Alrighty.

NVIDIA very quietly updated its Tesla range of graphics cards in the last 24 hours, introducing the new Tesla V100s graphics card that packs a faster Volta GPU and quicker HBM2 memory.

The new Tesla V100s (note the small 's', I guess this means 'SUPER' in the Volta sense) is pretty much just as faster version of the original Tesla V100, with the same GV100 GPU on the 12nm node and the same 5120 CUDA cores -- but it's the clock speed and memory bandwidth that are impressive.

NVIDIA's original Tesla V100 has its GV100 GPU boost clock at up to 1367MHz resulting in 14 TFLOPs of compute performance, while the new Tesla V100s has its GV100 GPU at up to 1601MHz boost clock which results in 16.4 TFLOPs of compute performance.